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The Quarterly Review, Vol. 181 by Various

Camus: A Collection of Critical Essays by Germaine Bree

The Book of D'Ni by Rand Miller

Our Mutual Friend by Charles Dickens

My Universities by Maxim Gorky

Death of a Hero by Richard Aldington

Lolita by Vladimir Nabokov

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Member: wunderkind

Library869 books — see library

Reviews20 reviews — see reviews

Cloudstag cloud, author cloud

TagsNR (534), Britain and Ireland (386), 20th century (post-1950) (331), 20th century (pre-1950) (267), USA (259), non-fiction (243), college (153), WBL (138), 19th century (125), HS (112) — see all tags

Groups75 Books Challenge for 2008, Anglophiles, Blitz Books: the WWII British Home Front, 1938 to 1945, BritWit, Chicagoans, INTPs, Neuroscience, Penguin Classics, The Diogenes Club, UChicagoshow all groups

Favorite authorsChris Adrian, Beryl Bainbridge, James Baldwin, Max Beerbohm, Malcolm Bradbury, Italo Calvino, Truman Capote, G. K. Chesterton, Noel Coward, Charles Dickens, T. S. Eliot, Anne Fadiman, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Andre Gide, Aldous Huxley, Jerome K. Jerome, W. Somerset Maugham, A. A. Milne, Mervyn Peake, Marcel Proust, John Steinbeck, Kurt Vonnegut, Evelyn Waugh, P.G. Wodehouse, Virginia Woolf (Shared favorites)

Favorite bookstores57th Street Books, O'Gara and Wilson, Booksellers, Powell's - Hyde Park, Seminary Co-op Bookstore

About me An undergrad not-so-diligently pursuing degrees in psychology and biology. Other than that, my life more or less boils down to family, books, and dogs (cats too, I suppose). I live for charity used book sales.

Now reading:


Read in 2008:
The Best
Human Voices by Penelope Fitzgerald (twice)
Winnie-the-Pooh by A.A. Milne
Bleak House by Charles Dickens
The Good Soldier by Ford Madox Ford
A Life in Secrets: The Story of Vera Atkins and the Lost Agents of SOE by Sarah Helm
Gang Leader for a Day: A Rogue Sociologist Takes to the Streets by Sudhir Venkatesh
Three Men in a Boat by Jerome K. Jerome
Criticisms and Appreciations of the Works of Charles Dickens by G.K. Chesterton
Letters to His Daughter by F. Scott Fitzgerald
The Bookshop at Curzon Street: Letters Between Nancy Mitford and Heywood Hill
Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro
To Say Nothing of the Dog by Connie Willis
A Question of Upbringing by Anthony Powell
The House at Pooh Corner by A.A. Milne
Black Dogs by Ian McEwan
The Sound and the Fury by William Faulkner
Diary of a Provincial Lady by E.M. Delafield
Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson

The Rest
Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
Mrs Dalloway by Virginia Woolf (reread)
Memoirs of a Professional Cad by George Saunders
The Quiet American by Graham Greene
My Dog Tulip by J.R. Ackerley
When We Were Very Young by A.A. Milne
Now We Are Six by A.A. Milne
The Cement Garden by Ian McEwan
The Decline and Fall of Practically Everybody by Will Cuppy
And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie
The Turn of the Screw by Henry James
The Tao of Pooh by Benjamin Hoff
Haiku Humor edited by Stephen Addiss
The Heat of the Day by Elizabeth Bowen
Rough Crossing by Tom Stoppard
The Human Factor by Graham Greene
Parnassus on Wheels by Christopher Morley
Young Adolf by Beryl Bainbridge
World War Z: An Oral History of the Zombie War by Max Brooks
The Lady Who Liked Clean Restrooms by J.P. Donleavy
On the Razzle by Tom Stoppard
The Pooh Perplex by Frederick C. Crews
Going to Meet the Man by James Baldwin
Aspects of the Novel by E.M. Forster
The Yellow Dog by Georges Simenon
Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson

About my library What's on Librarything is what's on my shelves, except for about twenty duplicate copies that I've left out. I suppose a lot of it's British. There are relatively few female writers (~15% of the total), but I don't know why. Books not originally published in English are also sadly underrepresented (~25%). I've got a goodly number of plays and short stories and volumes of poetry, but my true love is the novel. I'm just now getting into non-fiction: after years of trying to force myself into philosophy, I find that history and science are the only things for which I have any patience.

As for tags, "college" means I've read it since starting college, "HS" means I read it in high school, and "pre-HS" means (you guessed it) I read it before high school, although some of the HS and most of the pre-HS books have disappeared over the years. Almost all of the other tags are places/centuries of origin or non-fiction categories.

Real nameErin

LocationChicago, formerly Iowa

Account typepublic, lifetime

Connection NewsConnection News

URLs http://www.librarything.com/profile/wunderkind (profile)
http://www.librarything.com/catalog/wunderkind (library)

Member sinceApr 9, 2007

Comments from other LibraryThing-ers

(Leave a comment.)

Hi -

Thanks for your comment re: my World War 2 books, and the info about the Blitz Books group. I haven't really got to grips with the social side of Librarything yet (too busy cataloguing!), but will definitely be checking out that group when I do. I'm adding you as an interesting library too - I haven't had time to browse properly yet, but look forward to revisiting you once the adding frenzy is over.
Hi Erin, yet more Everett! Found 2 great interviews on ITunes podcasts>arts>Times Online>Times Online Books Podcast. They are #61 & #62. Both are free. Enjoy! Judie
Wow!" Another Country" was wonderfully acted by Everett & Firth. Loved seeing them in the blush of youth and the make-up job on the aged Everett was astounding. Interesting intro to the depiction of life in a boy's boarding school of the time and how it affected decisions about life. I wonder if it's changed much since then? Thanks so much for the tip. Judie
Hah! You totally made my day with that. Thanks!
Oh, wow, thanks for that. "Another Country" should arrive via netflix day after tomorrow. God, I love this site-never learned so much! Thanks again. Judie
Had to tell you that I found a 2007 DVD called "St. Trinian's" starring Rupert Everrett & Colin Firth! Unfortunately, it's only in the UK now. If I can't find it here, I'll get it from Amazon UK! Judie
"Everything Smelt of Kippers" is hilarious. I can't find out much about the author, unfortunately.
RYC: I can understand that. As much as I love the bookstores on 57th street, I haven't made it down there ONCE during the past year... I just can't bring myself to make a two-hour trip (I live on the North Side now) for the sake of maybe half an hour of browsing and no sure book purchases. STILL! I live in hope for a three-day weekend when I will actually make it down there AND go to the Medici bakery. (Oh, their cinnamon rolls were DIVINE...)
Wunderkind, I just checked my catalog and saw that I had to add this volume manually.
Good guess! An excellent deduction based on the clues at hand. However - I actually work at Loyola. I did, however, live in Hyde Park for the first year that we were in Chicago, which is why I know those book stores better than the ones elsewhere! (So far, though, I would say that those really are the best bookstores I've seen in town...)
Oh, "Secret Lives" was my most favorite E.F. Benson book for the longest time. It's still near the top, but - it must be admitted - I've come to notice that it has some structural issues. Not bad enough to make me tell you not to read the book, but I can tell you it drags a little in the middle. But if you can keep going, it finishes well!

I highly recommend Benson's "Queen Lucia". I have a review of it up, addressing my view of the book when I read it for the first time...!
How delightful to have carried the crush forward-good for you. I've adored him since I saw "The Importance of Being Earnest" & "My Best Friend's Wedding". I could listen (and have listened) to him & Colin Firth sing "The Serenade (Lady Come Down)" forever!
2 new books just arrived in my mailbox: "Sixpence House" & "The Child That Books Built", both recommended by fellow LTers. I also discovered BBC Radio 4 online thanks to another member & have been positively glued to my mac since. There are sooo many great programs; I'll never get through them all! Cheers! Judie
....man, is it horribly depressing nobody seems to know who Walker Percy is anymore, or what? ('Lost in the Cosmos' is one of my all-time favourite modern classics....)
Thanks for your comment. I felt a bit silly writing that review, I thought it captured the spirit rather well. I thought I had edited it into a proper review, but clearly not. Might not change it after all. :)
Thanks! I'm glad you said "stupendous" and not "stupid."
It is indeed. Funnily enough I also use solomonisaacs as my email... just to give proper tribute to The Mysterious Stranger.
glad you found my library interesting. we share a love of good british fiction!

do drop by my blog if you have time http://thebookaholic.blogspot.com
Hello,
Thanks for adding me to your list of 'Interesting Libraries', of course I don't mind at all,in fact I am always delighted when somebody does this as it shows that I must be doing something right with the way that I am putting my Library together.
Re SOE books. These are part of a collection put together in the main by my wife who is quite an expert in the subject.They have been collected over quite a few years.She says to tell you that the books by M.R.D.Foot are especially accurate and his facts on the subject are correct.
Best wishes from the UK
Hi Erin,

Thanks for visiting my profile. Some of my best friends are from Iowa ;)... and Chicago for that matter.

I'm from Missouri, Kansas City area. Wow, going to the University of Chicago! No wonder you go by the name wunderkind. Ah, college life, my oldest son is in high school and starting to examine colleges... Chicago is up there with MIT in his mind as his dream school (if only we won the lottery).

I'm pretty new here at Library Thing, thanks again for the welcome and visit.

Bonnie
Cece thanks you for the compliment :) I'm impressed! Most people can't tell she is a chow unless they see her black tongue. We think she is a chow/schipperke mix, which explains why she doesn't have a tail.
Hi Erin,

Thank you for your kind message. Yes, Beryl Bainbridge is fabulous, isn't she? I particularly enjoyed [An Awfully Big Adventure] - I wasn't expecting that very clever twist. I discovered later that she has quite a background in theatre, which explains a lot of the feel of authenticity. (Another book which is a little like that is [Swish of the Curtain] written by [[Pamela Brown]] when she was only 14. I grew up with it and loved it - keep intending to purchase a copy and not quite getting round to it. Thoroughly recommend it.) [The Bottle Factory Outing] which I don't currently own was also rather good.

Looking forward to getting to know you through your tasteful library!

Allie
Thank you very much - I'm sure I shall!
Hello, Erin! Thank you for looking at my library - yours is very interesting too!

I'm spending some time in Chicago soon. Any good bookshops you can recommend? The more secondhand and esoteric the better!

Rob
Glad you find my library interesting. We seem to share some cool stuff. Nice to see someone who owns some William Golding novels other than "Lord of the Flies."

Happy cataloging to you.
Two months later, the_terrible_trivium writes: Thanks! Such was pretty much my reaction to Godot. A general feeling of "so?"
Hi
I've been interested in the whole Scott phenomenon for years. I saw this program on PBS called "The Last Place on Earth" (also a book that I very highly recommend) about the race to the South Pole between Scott & Amundsen and I couldn't find enough to read after that.
Beryl Bainbridge is one of my favorite authors; have you read anything else by her? She's got a true talent with words. I really enjoyed The Birthday Boys, about Scott & his men at the South Pole. Just phenomenal!
The Hutchins college was an experimental college, which admitted students after 2 years of high school, based on an examination. (Grades and extra curricular activities meant nothing. Entrance was on brains only.The curriculum was required of everyone; there were no majors. The sequences were 3 years of humanities the third year of which could be taken in a foreign language, three years of social science, one year of physics, one year of biological science, one year of philosophy, one year of mathematics, a quarter of linguistics, and a year of foreign language. There might have been others that I have forgotten.

At entrance, the student took placement tests in all these subjects, and "placed out" of any where the test results showed sufficient competence. The courses were identical, no matter who taught them. The syllabi and the exams were prepared by committees; the courses by the departments, and the exams by the committee on standards. The head of the exam committee was Benjamin Bloom, author of the Taxonomy of Educational Objectives' which was the precursor to programmed instruction. The exams took six hours each, were multiple choice, had two essays, and were very difficult because all the answers were good, only some were more correct than others.The courses had two lectures and three discussion sections per week. Class attendance was not required. If you wanted to, you could take the exam and skip the course. Some people placed out of the whole college and went straight into grad school. Students were accepted after high school graduation if they didn't want to enter early.

The discussion sections emphasized socratic method, and the syllabi emphasized original material. The only textbooks we had were in physiology, and biology. There seemed to be an emphasis on Aristotle in almost every course. Hutchins, with Mortimer Adler of 'Great Books" fame, thought that a real liberal education was the learning of legal reasoning applied to the great masterpieces of science, philosophy, history, and literature. We read Kepler, Copernicus and Einstein, for example, in Physical Science, and "Swann's Way by Proust in Humanities 2. If you didn't get a decent grade on a 'comp' (comprehensive exam) you could take it again for five dollars. However, it was so difficult, that if you didn't study for at least three months, it didn't pay to try. If you were in residence for three quarters, you could leave, do the reading and take the exams using proctors at another university and graduate. (That is what I did. I did my last year (Physics, philosophy, history and french) in Puerto Rico in absentia where my husband had his first teaching job and I had my first baby. They wouldn't let me graduate until I did a French oral exam in the French department. They didn't trust proctors with my French accent!

It taught me how to study, how to think analytically, and to appreciate the great works over digestions by lesser mortals. I have been grateful for the experience all my life.
Don't deprive yourself of the 4th season. Even less-than-best Brett is better than anyone else.
I just realized I telescoped Larry Millett and Michael Dibdin into one (crappy) Holmes pastiche author. Avoid them both.

Twoey (Twofa, Two-Two, You Horrible Little Animal) never says he's sorry. Of course, he never holds a grudge either, an unusual trait in a cat.

Have I seen Jeremy Brett as Holmes, wunderkind asks. The correct question is, how many times have I seen each episode, even the later ones where the divine Brett of blessed memory is all puffy from medication? Beyond counting, I answer. Many have complained that Brett was too histrionic, but close reading of the Canon shows that Holmes was indeed highly strung, given to theatrical gestures and effects, and often teetering too close to the edge. While Brett's performance can be excessively "stagey"(e.g., the drug hallucinations in "The Devil's Foot) I think no one has ever given us such a complex interpretation of an often filmed, or played, character. The plan was to film the entire Canon, but Brett's untimely death of course put an end to that happy thought.
Alas, alack - most of the Holmes pastiches are crap. Avoid the Larry Dibdin stuff. Execrable. The Mycroft novels are good, but they're not Holmes. "The Game Is Afoot" anthology is entertaining. I've read all of Laurie King's stuff, which I like very much but they're rather uneven. I also have the issue of getting past the fact that she was a condescending bitch at a "meet the author" event in Pacific Grove a couple of years ago!
Try some of the critical books on Holmes, as well. I need to get back to the genre. I can't recommend anything off the top of my overly multitasked head.

That's Twoey the Bad Cat. I stuck him up on top of the Patrick O'Brien books one day, and he assumed this position. Why "the Bad Cat" you ask? Some of his recent misdeeds: three weeks ago he bit our oldest cat, it went septic ($300 at vet); two weeks ago, he got in a fight with the neighbor's cat, lost his new collar and ended up with a deep infected shoulder wound ($225 at vet). The following week I discovered he had whizzed on two volumes of a four-volume hardcover set of Orwell's letters, essays and journalism that was on a bottom shelf. We would have killed him a long time ago if he weren't so cute.
HA! Don't we all need more shelves... believe me, having a house doesn't make it much better. Libraries expand to occupy all available shelves, and won't quit there. Who's in your photo?

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